CH 1: The Road Travels East

[JadedDM]

Riverwind nods. "I wandered many long years," he says. "Often I had no idea where I was. I followed the sun and the moons and the stars. My last journey is like a dark dream." He is silent for a moment. When he speaks, it is as if he is talking from some great distance. "It was a city once beautiful, with white buildings supported by tall columns of marble. But it is now as if some great hand had picked up the city and cast it down a mountainside. Mired in a swamp, the city is now very old and very evil."

"Death on black wings," Tanis says softly, remembering the plainsman's earlier words.

"It rose like a god from the darkness, its creatures worshiped it, shrieking and howling." The Plainsman's face paled beneath his sun-baked skin. He was sweating in the chill morning air. "I can speak of it no more!"

"And out of the horror came a woman who gave you the staff?" Tanis pursues.

"She healed me," Riverwind says simply. "I was dying."

[Breila]

This time, it is Goldmoon who lays a loving hand on Riverwind's shoulder, to comfort him.

[Jerrard]

Sturm thinks for sometime, allowing Goldmoon to talk, and listening to Riverwind, all the while he stokes his beard.

"If what you say is true, then you have nothing to fear, either from me or anyone else." He looks straight into Goldmoons eyes, "The Oath and the Measure talk of protecting those that need help, you need my help as I thought originally."

He gives her and Riverwind the Knights Salute, then smiles, "Please, standing around in the rain is good for no one, let us keep moving."

[mltillis]

" Tanis? It won't take long for those clerics to turn around and come after us, once they get to Solace.... Do you think we can reach Haven before they return? " Caramon gazes around the group, focusing on any who seem worn down....

[JadedDM]

"They are slowed down by the wagon," Tanis says. "We should be able to put a good distance between us before they realize anything and come back this way. But only if we don't dally. Let's press on."

Ignoring the light rain, the party presses forward. The party makes decent progress. The road is well-maintained, allowing them to travel easily. The kender and dwarf have short legs, though, and that slows them a bit.

Within an hour of walking, Prayer's Eye Peak came into view. They can see it from the road to the southwest, rising above the forests. Its split peak looks like two hands pressed together in prayer--thus the name. The rain stops. The woods are deathly quiet. It is easy to think that the forest animals and birds have vanished from the land, leaving an eerie, empty silence behind. Tasslehoff, however, does not seem the least bit uneasy, and whistles a jaunty tune as they travel. Tanis, however, cannot shake the feeling that something is very wrong in the world. Riverwind appears disturbed by the lack of sound himself. Even Flint, who knows as much about nature as any other dwarf, keeps his grumbling to a minimum, as if afraid something is watching them.

Anyone who looks closely at the mountain can see trails twisting and winding up the wooded slope, trails used by Solace residents to reach picnic spots on the eastern side of the Peak. Sturm, in particular, will notice a white stag next to one of the well-worn paths.

The stag is the most magnificent animal the knight has ever seen. It is huge, standing several hands taller than any other stag the knight had hunted. It holds its head proudly, its splendid rack gleaming like a crown. Its eyes are deep brown against its pure white fur, and it gazes at the knight intently, as if it knows him. Then, with a slight shake of its head, the stag bounds away to the southwest.

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The Companions travels 1.8 miles in one hour. It is now 12 PM (Noon).

(OOC: Note, nobody can see this stag save for Sturm. )

[Jerrard]

"Stop!" Sturm shouts in command, "Did none of you see the White Stag?" When no one says they did he frowns, "It was the most Beautiful Creature I have ever seen. Do you remember, Huma followed one just like it in the Old Mans tale?"

Why did they not see it? How could he make them understand?

[JadedDM]

At the shouted command, Tanis quickly draws his sword, and Flint readies his battle-axe. Looking around, though, there are no opponents.

Looking around, Tanis says, "White stag?" He stares in the direction the knight indicates. "Where? I don't--"

The stag is still in plain view, and Tanis is looking right at it, but for some reason he does not seem capable of seeing it. The stag takes a few steps forward, then stops again, as if waiting for something.

"I see no stag of any color," Riverwind says, his dark eyes scanning the area.

"White stag? Where? Where? I don't see it! Where is it?" Tas demands. "I saw a goatsucking bird once. It wasn't white, though. I also once met a wooly mammoth, but it was pink, not white."

Flint raises a brow and slowly puts his axe away. "You feeling all right, Sturm? Maybe we should take a little rest."

[Jenara]

"I remember the story, I have heard it before, it would not be the first time someone had seen a White Stag in these woods." Laurana had been quiet since she was forced to stand in a ditch in the rain, she was protesting with her silence, "Do you suggest we follow it?"

[mltillis]

" I don't know.... There has been a lot of strange things going on lately ".... Caramon pulls off his helm and scratches his head.... " What do you see Raist? " He asks softly..

[Talyn]

Raistlin leans on his own staff and looks in the direction of Sturm's gaze. "I see nothing out of the ordinary." he declares. "Perhaps the Knight has taken a few too many blows to the head." he says with a bit of a cruel jest.

He shrugs and looks around. "Perhaps it would be better to follow an imaginary stag than a fool's hope on a road." he suggests casually.

[JadedDM]

"You're suggesting we follow an animal we can't even see?" Flint asks.

"It wouldn't be the strangest thing we've done," Tas comments. "Though, remember it was the old man who told the tale of the White Stag and the old man who got us into this--"

"It was our own choice got us into this," Tanis points out. "We could have turned the staff over to the High Theocrat and talked our way out of the predicament; we've talked our way out of worse." He looks at Sturm. "I guess it is possible he has been chosen, just as Riverwind was chosen to receive the staff--"

"But it's not even leading us in the right direction!" Flint argued. "You know as well as I do there are no trails through the western part of the woods. Nobody ever goes there."

Tanis nods. "Maybe so. I can't say. I'm not much for faith. What say the rest of you? Do we take this risk and follow Sturm's phantom stag? Or do we continue on to Haven like we planned?"

"Haven!" Flint votes.

"Haven sounds boring. Following an invisible stag sounds like an adventure! I vote for that," Tas says.

[Breila]

"The gods have strange ways of guiding us." Goldmoon says quietly. "And even if it is a detour, we might learn something from it. I think we should follow the stag. I'm just concerned that the rugged terrain may be difficult for some of us."

[Jenara]

"I will follow the Stag." Laurana says nervously, the Wood would take her away from Qualinesti, she was not ready to face her father yet.

[mltillis]

"Sturm's always acted solidly"...Caramon states..."I'm not keen on tramping off the road, but If he feels so strongly, we should follow his wishes."

[JadedDM]

Tanis sighs. "Looks like we have a consensus then. Let's hope it's the right choice. Lead on, Sturm."

The knight heads off, the others behind him, ignoring the well-trodden paths of Prayer's Eye Peak. He moves in a southwesterly direction up the slope. At first, it appears Flint is right--there are no trails. Sturm is crashing through the brush like a madman. Then, suddenly, a smooth wide trail opens up ahead of them. Tanis stares at it in amazement.

"What or who cleared this trail?" he asks Riverwind, who is also examining it with a puzzled expression.

"I don't know," the Plainsman says. "It's old. That felled tree has lain there long enough to sink over halfway into the dirt and it's covered with moss and vines. But there are no tracks. There's no sign of anyone or any animal passing through here. Yet why isn't it overgrown?"

Tanis can't answer and he can't take time to think about it. Sturm forges ahead rapidly; all anyone can do is try to keep him in sight.

"Goblins, boats, invisible stags--what's next?" complains Flint to the kender.

"I wish I could see the stag," Tas says wistfully.

"Hmph!" the dwarf snorts. "Maybe if I hit you on the head hard enough, you could. Although with you, we probably couldn't tell the difference."

The companions follow Sturm, who is climbing with a kind of wild elation. Tanis has difficultly catching up with the knight. When he does, he is alarmed at the feverish gleam in Sturm's eye. But the knight was obviously being guided by something. The trail led them up the slope of Prayer's Eye Peak. Tanis sees that it is taking them to the gap between the "hands" of stone, a gap that as far as he knew no one had ever entered before.

"Wait a moment," Tanis gasps after an hour of traveling at this pace. "Let's rest. I'm going to take a look at the land from over there." He points to a rock ledge that juts out from the side of the peak. Maybe I can see what is moving on the road to Haven."

"I'll come with you," Riverwind offers.

The white stag stops and patiently waits while the party rests.

When the two return, they look disturbed. Tanis explains to the others what they saw.

"There are people on the Haven road wearing thick robes and hoods, like those clerics. They seem to be looking for something--or someone. They haven't discovered the trail we're on...because it's disappearing behind us." He shakes his head. "I don't know how else to explain it. It's like the trail is just...closing up once we pass through it."

The half-elf scratches his beard. "There's more. Campfires to the far north."

"Many hundred campfires," Riverwind amends softly. "The fires of war. It is an army encampment."

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The Companions travels 0.8 miles in one hour. It is now 1 PM.